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The Miami HEAT continue their four-game road trip tonight against the Brooklyn Nets. The HEAT (28-13) and the Nets (27-18) have met twice this season, with the HEAT winning both contests. Tip off is set for 8 PM; coverage on Sun Sports starts at 7:30 PM.

1: The HEAT have won their last two games decisively over the Nets. What can Brooklyn do differently?

Couper Moorhead: The short answer is they just have to score more points and turn the ball over less, but the Nets already have a strong offense. What really needs to improve is their defense, but just as with Roy Hibbert and the Pacers, the Nets are forced to play a safe, containment style of defense with Brook Lopez sitting back in the paint on pick and rolls, and while that can sometimes take a while for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to get used to, the result is always a constant barrage of high pick-and-rolls sending two of the league’s best finishers straight at a big man. Until the Nets find a better solution, the HEAT will have the advantage.

Danny Martinez: For the Nets to truly be a contender, they need to tighten things up on the defensive end. They enter tonight’s game as the 17th best defense in the NBA, which is too low. Against the HEAT, the Brooklyn bigs must find a way to thwart the HEAT’s basic pick-and-roll actions. Brook Lopez and company are good players, but they sometimes struggle with lateral quickness. If they can find a way to contain HEAT ball handlers, the Nets will significantly help their chances.

2: Since this is the last time these two teams will play in the regular season, do we have a good idea of what a playoff matchup would look like?

Couper: The Nets can score well enough to take a game or two, but it’s always going to come down defending that pick-and-roll. Then again, some of Brooklyn’s defensive issues could be mitigated in the playoffs when they play a tighter rotation – though the +/- numbers don’t show much of a difference between the starters and the bench unit.

Danny: Same answer as the first question. The defense is the big question mark when it comes to Brooklyn. More time together will surely help, as this team is still feeling its way out after adding a bunch of new pieces. A playoff matchup between the two would feature a lot of pick-and-roll from Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, with the hopes of getting Lopez moving around in space.

3: Is Deron Williams back to being the Deron Williams we all (like to) remember?

Couper: His playmaking is about where it was; it’s his shooting that is really coming around. In 14 January games, Williams is shooting 45 percent from the field and just above 43 percent from three-point range, up from generally unspeakable percentages in the two months before – as a result, he’s scoring about two more points per 36 minutes on the floor. Time will tell if the spike is an aberration or a return to form, but it’s probably important for us to stop looking for the Williams that played in Utah’s flex offense and, eventually, figure out who he’s going to be in Brooklyn – he’ll be there for a long time.

Danny: Well, I wouldn’t expect the three-point shooting in the month of January to be sustainable. Williams is shooting a scorching 43 percent on 78 attempts from deep this month. The last time he did that over a whole month was back in 2008, when he shot 45.7 percent on 35 attempts. Everything else looks sustainable, though. Brooklyn needs Williams, Lopez and Joe Johnson to produce at a high level to truly contend. Williams turning things around after a slow start is a big reason the Nets are 7-3 in their last 10 games.

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At this time of the year, on this road trip, these next 3 games are CRUCIAL for us. Given the amount of road losses we've accumulated thus far, it would be a huge boost for moral and our record going into the ASG in houston. I know we will have a fast start, then for whatever reason, fall behind in the second quarter. But I do hope the Heat will have a SUSTAINED effort defensively throughout the game.

Here's hoping for a win.

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What's up my fellow HEAT fans? Which HEAT team shows up tonight is the question that I'm personally pondering. It's hard to get amped for this game due to MIAMI's erratic play. I'm hoping MIAMI decide to play championship ball going into the all-star break. Closing this road trip out 3-1 will be respectful...TEAM HEAT since '88!

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Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Broklyn. Hopefully it's a close game or a blowout(with Nets blowing out Heat) if any Heat fans here are going, let me know how it is, tickets were crazy expensive and I wasn't spend 100 dollars to see Nets from the last row of stadium, but from other popular teams coming this year and seeing those games I will say the atomsphere has been great with Net fans chanting. I'm sure there with be Heat fans, but the whole crowd won't be there to see the Heat like last years or years before. Should be exciting game for fans of both teams hopefully.

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Reggie Evans talked alot of crap discrediting the Heat 2012 championship saying that it didn't count because it was a 66 game season, tonight the Heat must make a example of him and the Nets and I know its just another regular season game but really he must know better than saying such a thing about the NBA Champions. Cant remember ever a opposing player talk so bad about a NBA Championship team on the day his team plays them.

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Photo Credit: David Dow
With the pain of missing the playoffs by the slimmest of margins ingrained in their memory, the HEAT entered the 2017-18 season seeking redemption. Take a look back at how Miami achieved that goal here.

Photo Credit: Jesse D. Garrabrant
The Miami HEAT fell to the Philadelphia 76ers 104-91 Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round. Kelly Olynyk led the way for the HEAT with 18 points. Philadelphia wins the series 4-1. Click here for the full recap on HEAT.com

Photo Credit: David Dow
The Miami HEAT face the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round. Philadelphia leads the series 3-1. Tip-off is set for 8:00 PM. Television coverage on FOX Sports Sun begins at 7:30 PM. You can also listen to the action live on 790 The Ticket.
1: What can we learn from Philadelphia’s late push to a Game 4 victory?
Couper Moorhead: This won’t be a comforting statistic for anyone to read, but the 76ers were the first team to win a playoff game with 26 or more turnovers since 1986. For that to come up as the difference between a tied series and going on the road down 3-1 certainly can’t be easy for HEAT, but that’s the reality of the situation.
Those turnovers, and 18 Miami steals, were by and large the reason the HEAT were playing with around a 10-point lead for much of the game. They were out attacking passing lanes, getting deflections (with over 20 for the third-straight game) and contesting every Philadelphia three possible (22.6 percent from distance). It was, in so many words, the HEAT playing a very HEAT game in every way you would expect, from the physicality to the discipline on display defensively, where they cut off drives and recovered to shooters. They were in control of both the game and the score.
So how did the Sixers come back despite all of that? Six quick points from Ersan İlyasova, including a tough three, at the end of the third made it was four-point game headed into the final period. And then Philadelphia’s defense came alive, holding Miami to just 19 points in the period. And maybe that’s all there is to really learn. You can play some of your best basketball, but in a closely contested series against a talented opponent just one stretch of mistakes can cost you a handful on the scoreboard. Miami has done enough to beat a good number of teams, it just wasn’t quite enough to beat Philadelphia on Saturday.
Joe Beguiristain: We just continued to see how tough the 76ers are. Even with some great defense by Miami for most of the contest (the HEAT totaled 18 steals, including seven from Josh Richardson) and a late offensive surge by Dwyane Wade (12 points on 5-of-10 shooting in the fourth), Philadelphia never lost its composure.
Much like in Game 3, the 76ers upped their defensive pressure and came through with timely offensive rebounds to escape with the narrow victory despite committing a whopping 27 turnovers.
While J.J. Redick and Ben Simmons made some big plays late, the HEAT did a great job against Joel Embiid and made his catches tough throughout. In fact, Hassan Whiteside held Embiid to just 1-of-8 shooting and an unreal five turnovers. Bam Adebayo, meanwhile, fared just as well and limited the Cameroonian to 0-of-3 shooting and three turnovers.
It would be unreasonable to expect that once again, but it will take that kind of effort from both bigs if Miami wants to come out ahead this time around.
2: Are there any adjustments Miami can make to try and force a Game 6?
Couper: Erik Spoelstra will likely take a look at everything, from making lineup changes to changing defensive coverages to shifting offensive responsibilities. He’s not one to leave things on the table. But for everything he’ll likely look at, it’s very possible that there aren’t actually many major changes that need to be made. You go down 3-1 in a series and it’s easy to think drastic adjustments are in line, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes, and we’ve said this here before, the best adjustment is just doing what you’ve been doing and doing it better. The HEAT have already been doing things very, very well, but if being even better than that is what it takes, then so be it. As Spoelstra has said a number of times in this series, that’s the challenge.
Joe: At this point, I don’t think there is much to change or adjust for either team. Although Miami is down 3-1, this has been a highly competitive series between two teams that really get after it. Sure, Erik Spoelstra might make a few minor tweaks to his rotation based on player performance, but that’s been the case all year long. And as Coup mentioned in his first response, the HEAT have executed well enough to win most of these games, so it’s really just a matter of sustaining that high level of play for longer periods of time.
At the end of the day, Miami just needs to keep up its defensive activity to make up for the size disparity and continue to attack in the pick-and-roll to create more openings on the other end.
We’ll see how it all plays out.
3: The HEAT have led at halftime of each game this series. What can they do better to hold leads in the second half?
Couper: Something Dwyane Wade emphasized a number of times following Game 4 was that the Sixers make you pay for every single mistake you make. If you take your foot off the gas for just a couple of minutes, those minutes are going to cost you.
Now, it’s probably not fair to say the HEAT have ever really taken their foot off the gas given how consistently hard they have been playing on the defensive end, but they have certainly had some offensive droughts that have allowed the Sixers to make up some ground. That’s not always to say they stop getting good shots or don’t run their offense, but even going cold on wide open shots for a minute or two is enough to turn a game – such as at the end of the third quarter on Saturday, which snowballed into an extended Philadelphia run – in a series where both teams are in overdrive. That’s also been a bit of a trend at times for Miami this season, where they’ll have one down six-minute stretch even in games where they’re otherwise topping 26-28 in a quarter, and trends like that can carry over to the postseason even if you can minimize them.
Spoelstra has said he’s been looking for a complete game from his team at times this season. He’s been getting complete effort, but the HEAT might just need complete offense to start a comeback. And they’ll have to do it against a team that’s proved to be capable of truly elite level defense.
Joe: Although the HEAT have done a great job of building early leads, the 76ers have responded well time and time again down the stretch. Thanks to Philadelphia’s fusion of length and discipline, the team has made things quite difficult on Miami in the halfcourt more often than not. As such, it’ll behoove the HEAT to push the pace as much as possible and get some easy buckets in transition. But if the opportunity doesn’t present itself, Miami should still be able to find some success in the pick-and-roll with Dragić and Wade attacking and Whiteside and Adebayo diving to the rim with force. In addition to defending Embiid really well in Game 4, both HEAT centers threw down some ferocious alley-oops on the break, so perhaps they can continue that and also translate it to set offense on Tuesday.
Highlights:
Game 4 – 76ers at HEAT
Game 3 – 76ers at HEAT
Game Notes:
Goran Dragić leads Miami with 19.5 points per game during the postseason.
Ben Simmons leads Philadelphia in points (19.3), rebounds (10.8), assists (9.8) and steals (2.5) per contest in the playoffs.
The HEAT are 8-2 in their last 10 elimination games.
Josh Richardson (left shoulder sprain) is listed as questionable.

Photo Credit: Issac Baldizon
The Miami HEAT fell to the Philadelphia 76ers 106-102 Saturday afternoon in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round. Dwyane Wade led the way for the HEAT with 25 points. Philadelphia now leads the series 3-1. Click here for the full recap on HEAT.com.